the 10 commandments for building a value propositionthat sells.pdf

8/20/2019 The 10 Commandments for Building a Value Propositionthat Sells.pdf

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Selling Consulting Services Report

The 10 Commandments for

Building a Value Proposition

that Sells

A RainToday.com Special ReportBy Mike Schultz


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Commandment #1: Thou shall not crash and burn

when asked, “What do you do?”

“ What do you do?” It’s a simple question, yet its mere asking skips a lot of trains

off the track.

Consultants stumble, don’t know how to describe their complex services, talk on

and on, and make a host of other mistakes.

Simple as it may sound, the firs t step in succeeding with your answer is

to not crash and burn from the get-go.

You can start by avoiding these six common derailers:

1. The “I talked but I didn’t say anything” trap: “We offer efficient andeffective consulting solutions to Fortune 500 and emerging growth companies,

helping them to uncover and capitalize on hidden opportunities to provide value

to their customers and increase shareholder value. We’re unique because…”

2. The “tell your entire life story” trap: “It all started when I was 5 and my

mom got me my first book on EPA compliance…by the time I was 13, I had

capped my first brown field…then in the third year after starting the firm, we

launched our emissions testing division…”

3. The “ ain’t that cute” trap:

“We’re the smiley-faced law firm.”

“We make our clients’ financials sing.”

“We’re the leading-with-integrity company.”

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Copyright © RainToday 2010 Selling Consulting Services Report


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4. The “ laundry l ist” trap: “We are a law firm, and we focus on admiralty law,

alternative dispute resolution, antitrust, bankruptcy, appellate litigation,

complex litigation, debt financing, environmental law, foreign corrupt practices,

government relations, ice cream patent and trademark, koala bear adoption,

llama surrogate pregnancy litigation…”

5. The “ I have no idea how to explain it” trap: “Well, um, you see in capital-

intense businesses there sometimes is a situation where the capitalization

structure needs to be re-engineered because…well, there’s really a lot to it. OK,

from a big picture perspective we tend to focus on smokestack businesses, butonly where their capital structure…”

And the most common pi tfall of all…

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If you think of a value propos ition not as a statement, but as a conceptabout why people buy something, then you’ve got a lot more to work

with.

It’s from that concept—the collection of reasons why people buy from you—that

you can put your marketing and sales to work much more effectively,

communicating different components of that value in different ways for different

situations.

One of these situations is, indeed, to describe your value in broad strokeswhen you introduce yourself and your firm to new people.

This is when you can use a value proposition pos itioning statement.

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A value proposi tion

positioning s tatement is acompelling, tangible

statement of how a

company or individual

will benefit from buying

from you.

You take parts of your overall

value proposition – everything

that’s great about what youcan do for your clients – and

craft key points into a

statement. This way a buyer

can get the overall sense of

how you can help and get that

sense fairly quickly.


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A Real-Life Value Proposit ion Posi tioning Statement

We at RAIN Group help companies that sell complex products and services to improve their sales performance. If you want

your professionals, business developers, and sales people to sell more, we can help.

This is the umbrella under which we operate. The purpose is to help our clients and the market wrap their heads around

the general area where we help, and to know when they might want to work with us.

Ultimately, this is why our clients buy from us; because we’ll help them increase sales success. But there is always a set of

underlying factors that swayed them to choose us versus a) doing something themselves, b) choosing someone else to

help them, and c) choosing to do nothing at all.

They don’t investigate the various underlying components of why clients buy from them. They stop at “we’re trustedpartners” or “we help you reduce your overhead costs” and it doesn’t serve them well.

Too many professionals only c raft and practice a statement!

If you think of a value proposition only as a statement, you’ll stop there, too.

If you follow Commandment #2 and think about value proposition as the reasons why someone buys

from you, then you can have much ri cher and more persuasive conversations.


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Commandment #3: Thou shalt focus on the

outcomes, not the mechanics

Like the definition states, your value proposition is the collection of reasons why

clients buy from you.

Think about this for a minute…

You buy an audit because you need to comply w ith laws , you don’t

want to pay penalties, you don’t want to be brought up on charges because

you broke laws, you need 3rd party validation if you want another company

to believe your statements before they buy you, and so on. Most don’t buy

an audit because they want the satisfaction of checking their own math.

You buy a marketing plan because you want to grow your firm ,not because you want to define your targets, hone your messaging, and

implement a set of tactics.

You buy technology support because you need to have yoursystems up and running 24/7 so people can work when they want, not

lose time if the servers go down, know where to go for help, work remotely

without undue hassles, and so on. You don’t buy because you need to have a

meeting weekly with an MCSE.

Your cl ients aren’t buying because of the service—the audit, the

marketing plan, the tech support—they’re buying because of the outcome—

keeping the IRS happy, growing their business, allowing their workforce to stay

productive.

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Think in terms of what

client needs you can fill ,

not what services you

offer.

Prospects may not always

understand the details about

your services, but they

certainly will understand how

relieving their afflictions or

reaching their desired futurewill help.

In order to create a

powerful value proposition,

you must stop thinking in

terms of your services

and start thinking in

terms of outcomes.


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A Consult ing Parable

A man is walking by a construction site, and he comes upon somebody laying bricks and he asks the

person, “What are you doing?” The worker looks to him and says, “I’m laying bricks.”

The man continues walking down the road, and he comes to another worker doing the same thing and he

says, “What are you doing?” And this worker says, “I’m building a wall.”

He continues one more step down that building site, and he comes to a third worker laying bricks and he

says, “What are you doing?” And the worker turns to him and says, “I’m building a cathedral.”

This is how you have to think when talking to prospects about your services…

It’s not about the services (laying the bri cks).

It’s about the outcome (building the cathedral).


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Commandment #4: Thou shalt stop thinking about

and positioning thyself as a commodity

“ Buyers view us as a commodi ty and say they can get the same service

from the guy down the street cheaper.”

If you talk about yourself and your services as commodities, all prospects see is

another service provider laying bricks.

To get yourself out of this commodity trap you need stop talking about and

positioning yourself as just another brick layer. Help your clients to paint a picture of

the cathedral.

If you think of yourself as a commodi ty, that’s how you’ll come across.

“ One of the biggest

problems that

consul tants have isarticulating their

value to new

prospects. One of the

challenges that we

have as consultants

is taking what we

offer to clients and

making it not seem

like a commodity. Thefirst step to getting

away from selling

services as a

commodity is getting

out of that mindset,

so you don’t project

yourself as a

commodity.”

- John Doerr, Instructor

Selling Consulting

Services

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Solution

I worked with the firm and asked them to try a different strategy.

I started by asking them a series of questions:

What’s it like working with you?

Forget the building blocks of how you get there, what are the deliverables?

What is the value that your clients receive at the end of working with you?

What frustrations have your clients had when working with other firms?

That’s when the web consultants realized they don’t jus t build w ebsites. They build all dif ferent types of

company and marketing success.

Lo and behold, they started to articulate this value to prospects in their conversations and in their proposals. They went 0

for 25 before, and then they went two for two.

If you don’t want to be seen as a commodity stop position ing yourself as a commodi ty.

Stop talking about the mechanics of your services, and start talking about the value and outcomes.

What the client is buying and what they care about is alleviating an affliction or realizing an aspiration – these are certainly not commodities.


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The collection of reasons why people buy your

services fall into three major buckets that make up

commandments #5-7:

Commandment #5: Thy value proposition shalt resonate

1. Potential buyers have to want and need what you’re selling.

You need to ask yourself:

Is what I’m offering what people want?

What are the business and personal benefits of engaging my services?

You have to resonate.

Commandment #6: Thy value proposition shalt differentiate

2. Potential buyers have to see why you stand out from the other

available options.

Do you know why you’re the best option available? Over the last year or so, the

market has been crowded with people hanging shingles, saying they do the

same things that you’ve been doing for decades. Now more than ever you haveto ask yourself, “How can I stand out against other providers?” and, “How can I

stand out against internal teams that try to do what I do?”

You have to differentiate.

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Commandment #7: Thy value proposition shalt

substantiate

3. Potential buyers have to believe that you can deliver on your

promises.

How can you prove that you can produce the outcomes you say you can

produce?

How can you get buyers to think, “I believe you. I trust you.”

You sell something intangible—they can’t see it or touch it. They won’t know

how well it will come out until after you’re done. You have to be able to

substantiate your claims and get them to believe.

You have to substantiate.

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Think of these commandments as the legs of a value proposition stool.

resonate differentiate

substantiate


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The 3 Legs of the Value Proposi tion Stool

So what happens if you don’t attend to the holy trinity of value propositions? Just

like a 3-legged stool, you can see how if you take one away the entire stool topples

over:

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Resonate

“I Want”

“I Need”

Differentiate

“The Best

Option”

Substantiate

“I Trust”

“I Believe”

• Lead Generation Success

• New Client Wins

• Premium Fees

• Scrambling Competitors

Components of

Strong Value

Propositions

Take One

Away…

…What Buyers Say

Weak

Resonance

Difficult to

Substitute

Able to

Substantiate

“I don’t need”

“Not important

enough”

Strong

Resonance

Easy to

Substitute

Able to

Substantiate

“What’s your best

price?”

“I can do without

you”

Strong

Resonance

Difficult to

Substitute

Not Able to

Substantiate

“I’m skeptical”

“Can’t risk it”

Creates Foundation for…

+ +


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So if you…

Remove resonance, people just won’t want what you’re selling

Remove differentiation, buyers will pressure you on price or attempt to get

the service someplace else

Remove your ability to substantiate your claims, and while clients may want

what you sell (you resonate), and may perceive you to be the only people on

the planet that do what you do (you differentiate), they won’t believe you

can produce what you say you can and won’t risk working with you

This is your actual value proposition—the collection of reasons why

people buy from you—it is woven into the fabric of the firm and your

relationships with clients.

Before you come up with your value proposition positioning statement,

focus first on understanding all of the components that make up the

three legs of your value proposi tion stool.

Then you can really get your value across in your marketing efforts and sales

conversations. You can sum it all up in a short statement, too (and we’ll talk about

this next), but you’ll be way ahead of your competitors that stop there and think

they’re done.

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The Misconception of

the “Unique Selling

Proposition (USP)”

Notice how we don’t say

you have to be “unique.”

You may have heard that

you can’t survive unless you

have a USP.

The USP concept rarely

applies in meaningful ways

to consulting and otherprofessional services firms.

Think about it, do you want

a unique dentist, or one

that is just very good?

It is important to have

points of distinction, but it

doesn’t have to be unique

in the “only one on theplanet” sense.


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Commandment #8: Thou shalt use 6 building blocks

to craft value proposition positioning statements

At this point you know you need to:

Focus on the outcomes your services provide

Resonate with buyers in the marketplace

Differentiate yourself from competitors

Substantiate what you do and get prospects to believe that you’ll

deliver on your promises

Now you have to take all of this information and turn it into a valueproposi tion pos itioning statement that you can use in marketing and

selling.

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4. Your Offering: What’s your approach to delivering your services, running your

company, solving problems, and working with clients?

Notice, company and services are 4th here. You are not leading with your

services.

You’re taking a client-centric approach and framing your services

within the context of the needs you help solve.

5. Proof of Concept: How can you demonstrate that your approach has worked

to solve similar problems for others? How do you substantiate your claims? How

do they know that what you say will happen will actually happen?

You can use reference stories and case studies to provide evidentiary support foryour clients to substantiate your claims.

6. Genuine and Distinct: Why is your offering preferable to other options for

solving the need?

This creates desire and preference for your firm versus the others.

Remember, it’s diff icult to be unique, but you can be distinct.

You can see how these 6 building blocks work with the 3 keys – resonate,

differentiate, substantiate – to develop messages you can articulate.

You can use these messages in many ways – in your sales conversations, on your

website, in your marketing materials, in proposals, and so on.

Caveat: The idea here is

not to create onecanned statement that

encapsulates each of these

6 positioning points that

you use in every single

conversation. Remember,

these are building blocks.

Just like the wooden

blocks we all had as kids,

you can use the same

blocks to build all sorts of

different shapes, towers,

and objects.

You pick and choose

which blocks to use in

your conversations

based on the particularsituation.

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For example, say you’re a marketing and brand consultant talking to your

cousin Rocco, who happens to be a private school teacher, and asks you to

explain what you do. You might say something like this:

In private schools, how do you think they get students to enroll?

Generally families might look at and evaluate 2, 3, 5 schools before

choosing one. But what do you think causes some schools to havethriving enrollment and wait lists while others struggle to get new

students?

Large organizations have to ask themselves these same questions—

except rather than talking about student enrollment, they are talking

about consumers buying their products.

Why do you choose Colgate over Crest? I help large organizations

answer these types of questions for their business. I just helped acompany that sells dog toys to reposition a product line and get it into a

major department store chain that they’ve been trying to get into for 4

years. Sales tripled.

However , if you were talking to a prospect you met at a networking event, the

answer to the question might sound something like this:

I help large packaged goods companies understand why consumers

decide to buy one brand over another. For example just last week I presented findings to a client where we uncovered X, Y, Z. It’s really

interesting stuff that will likely to lead to $200 million in new sales over

the next three years if they implement our recommended changes.

Same building blocks , but tailored for the audience you are

speaking to and the particular situation.


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Here are a couple real-world examples putting these building blocks to

practice:

.

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We’re accountants.

We make sure our family-owned business clients understand their finances

and reach their financial goals. Most people view accounting functions at a

business as a cost center. We help our clients make money and save money

through the work we do.

Here is a good example. Just last week we showed a client that she was

using two different vendors to buy the same product for their 22 locations.

We brought it to their attention, called the vendors in to compete for all the

business. And compete they did!

The new vendor agreement will save our client $100,000 during next quarter

alone.

Genuine

Distinct Target Clients Offering

Target Need

Proof ofConcept

Business Value


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Once you have the proper building blocks on reserve, you’ll be ready in

any selling situation to properly posi tion the value of your firm.

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I work with some of the world’s best-known companies to help them protect

their brands.

Using our experience in intellectual property law, we help companies like Nikeand even organizations like the NBA protect the value of their brands.

We have 9 industry specialties in IP law as well. Just last week we helped a

client protect their newest music releases from counterfeiting overseas. They

benefited because we had the contacts in that country to make sure their

products were protected.

That one bit of help will safeguard millions of dollars in revenue for them

that would otherwise have gone to unauthorized vendors and costly lawsuitsin a foreign country.

Target NeedOffering

Target Clients

Proof of

ConceptBusiness Value


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Commandment #9: Thou shalt remain true to thyself

Too many firms research the market and find out what they think buyers want in a

particular situation. Then they take those bullet points and put them in their

positioning statements without asking themselves the question, “ Is this really

us?”

If it’s not, two things happen:

1. People that work in your company won’t embrace the messages.They’ll know it’s not true, and they just won’t use them.

2. Decision makers will engage you based on a set of promises youmake. Then you’ll deliver, and there will be disconnects. This doesn’t do you or

them any good.

Reflect to the marketplace who you actually are and the value you

actually bring to the table. It’ll be better for you and your clients in the

long run.

In researching our book

Professional Services Marketing

we interviewed, Mike Sheehan,CEO of Hill Holiday. He said:

“ Professionals go along with

creative and messaging

processes and nitpick, but

they don’t really focus where

they need to: asking

themselves, ‘Is th is really

us?’

“ Have the discipline and

honesty – the kind of

intellectual and emotional

honesty you need – to say

up front w ho you are and

who you w ant to be, and

then be consistent about it .

If it’s not reflective of who

you are, it wil l be rejected.”

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Commandment #10: Thou shalt get thy value

proposition on the agendas of decision makers

The business landscape is littered with consulting firms that know they could make a

huge difference for so many companies, yet they never seem to grow.

They say to themselves, “ When people hear about the huge benefits we

produce for our clients, repeat business and referrals will flood in.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen like this. Maybe it used to, but that ship sailed a

long time ago.

Too many consulting firms spend 10 times the effort coming up with their messages

than they do on getting the messages out to the market.

It should be the other way around.

If you want your value proposi tion to make a difference for you and

your clients, the first step is this: you have to create conversations with

people who need you.

They might not know they need you…until you speak with them and they see how

much more success they could be having if they worked with you.

They might be using someone else right now…but once they speak with you, they

see that they should be getting so much more that they’re currently not getting.

You can’t make any of this happen if you don’t get discussions about

you and your value on to decision makers’ agendas.

How Do I Get MyMessage Out to a

Crowded Marketplace?

You might not think it, but

the majority of the largest,

most prestigious consulting

firms drive business with

the simple cold call.

It’s not the only tactic they

use, but they use it. Yes,

that’s right, they give all

their hustle, passion, and

intensity to the process of

grabbing people’s attention

using the phone so they can

share their value.

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Grabbing Attention and Getting Prospects Interested

is Only the First Step

Being able to position your value in a way that grabs attention and

communicates the benefits of working with you is vital to your sellingsuccess. But this is only the first step.

Once you’ve got their attention, how do you build trust and rapport? Uncover the

full set of your prospect’s needs? Craft the best solution to meet those needs?

Communicate the value and ROI of your solution?

To help you answer these questions and more, we’ve developed an online training

program:

In this report we’ve barely scratched the surface. The Selling Consulting Services

with RAIN Selling program is an intensive online training program designed to walk

you step-by-step through all facets of selling consulting—from building a value

proposition that sells to generating initial discussions, to leading masterful sales

conversations, to nurturing leads in the pipeline, to closing the deal.

We’ll share learnings from mistakes we’ve seen thousands of consultants make, our

decades of experience, and all of our hard work.

In the program, you’ll have the opportunity to network with other professionals who

are working to make the transition from consultant to rainmaker. You’ll have access

to myself and the other program instructors in the forums and on monthly Q&A

coaching calls to get direct feedback on your value proposition, your sales

conversations, your proposals, and what challenges you face in selling your services.

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“ I’ve done many online

training programs over

the past 10 years, and thisis, by far, the most well

thought-out and best

presented program I’ve

seen.”-Ghennipher Weeks

Applied Connectioneering


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Over the course of the program, we’ll give you all the pieces of the

puzzle you need to:

1. Develop a winning value proposition and describe complex services in a

way that gets prospects excited about you and your services

2. Keep the front end of the pipeline full with qualified prospects whilemaintaining your practice with active clients

3. Position yourself as a trusted advisor during the sales process, building strong,

trusting relationships from the get go, making the sale smoother and

faster

4. Lead masterful sales conversation in any situation

5. Overcome objections and get closer to the close

6. Follow up with prospects in a way that deepens your relationship over time

7. Get premium fees for your services even when clients pressure you for

lower fees

8. Make the business impact of your services clear so you can sell more with

less buyer resistance

9. Increase profits by charging (and getting) premium fees for your services

10.Create winning proposals just like the web consultant I told you about

earlier in this report

In the program, we’ll equip you with the practical, how-to information and tools you

need to fill the pipeline, command higher fees for your services, and bring in a

predictable flow of profitable new clients.

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This report provides you with

some core knowledge and

ways to think in order for you

to be successful in bringing innew business.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be

sending you additional free

content with tips and

strategies you can use to not

only hone your value

proposition, but to be more

successful with your sellingefforts overall.

While this report provides you

with tips and ideas on how to

develop your value

proposition to grab prospects’

attention, participants in the

Selling Consulting Services

program are given tools, astep-by-step process, and

direct feedback on their value

propositions and how to get

new clients in the door.


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What’s Next?

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sending you additional free content with tips and

strategies you can use to not only hone your value proposition, but to be more

successful with your selling efforts overall. Plus we’ll give you a complete run-down

of what’s included in the Selling Consulting Services with RAIN Selling program.

We’ve got a lot more free content coming your way, so stay tuned. In the meantime,

you can learn more about the 6 core modules in Selling Consulting Services with

RAIN Selling and what you can look forward to learning in each one here.

Best regards,

Mike Schultz

President, RAIN Group

Founder and Publisher, RainToday.com

Co-author, Rainmaking Conversations (coming soon)

Adjunct Professor, Marketing Division, Babson College

Instructor, Selling Consulting Services with RAIN Selling

P.S. Stay tuned over the coming weeks and look for emails from me.

You don’t want to miss the valuable tips I’m about to share with

you. To be sure you receive these emails, please add

[email protected] to your safe sender list.

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“ Selling Consulting

Services with RAIN

Selling has given megreater confidence and

comfort with selling my

services. The program

structure and tools are

logical and practical, and

have helped me learn how

selling can be a natural

extension of who I am

and what I have to offer. Add it ional ly, i t al lows me

to go at my own pace,

which , given an already

busy schedule, is a huge

plus. The program is

enjoyable and valuable.”-Jeremy Bromberg

Bromberg LLC
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